Our client, a leading international banking group, approached ABSTRACT to help develop their female talent pool, particularly in underrepresented areas such as trading and investments.

Their objectives were to increase the number of women in senior positions from 18% to 30% by 2020.

The female agenda was heavily sponsored by the Executive and had its own set of selected high-profile people holding the development and progress to account.

Throughout the next five years we experimented with female-only cohorts, mixed gender cohorts and even male-only cohorts for areas such as HR.

It was interesting to witness the change in dynamics between the various cohorts. Unequivocally, the female-only groups bonded far better and developed themselves individually and collectively at great speed.

The mixed-gender groups tended to be more reserved and took much longer to take off, while the male-only groups never really seemed to reach a total state of kinship.

The programme was rigorously developed as a proven business career management development accelerator and following two pilots, several small changes were made, and we began full role out in 2015.

The programme provided the tools and inspiration for delegates to manage their own careers successfully.

It would be fair to say that the programme looks and feels very different in today’s world as we have evolved and adapted over the years, however, its core modular features remain, engaging delegates to aspire and explore beyond their initial dreams.

In total, our clients placed over 1,000 of their female and under-represented talented people through the programme and by the end of 2019, they had achieved an amazing 37% of their female talent population being appointed into senior positions.

On top of this, they had begun creating a more sustainable and ethical environment in which to operate.

Their new leaders had become ‘Strong and Considerate’ by design, which attracted similar like-minded talent into the Organisation.

Ten years on from the first ACCELERATE cohort, its impact and resonance are still being positively felt around the globe today.